Friday, 31 July 2015

"I'm older. There's some sort of seniority. As a matter of fact, the seniority ebbs as you get older."Meryl Streep"America doesn't reward people of my age, either in day-to-day life or for their performances."Meryl Streep

"Our culture is pretty youth-obsessed, especially people that pass 40. I was not offered any female adventurers, or love interests, or heroes or demons. I was offered witches because I was ‘old’ at 40." Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep, three-time Oscar winner, 18 times nominated for the Academy Award, in other words, the most nominated actress, number 73 on the Forbes list of the world's highest-paid celebrities in 2013, number 92 in 2014 (via) and according to Forbes one of the highest paid actresses (via) experienced a turn in her career as soon as she turned 40: She was offered three witch parts within one year ... and turned them all down (via).

On why she takes issue with witch depiction in pop culture:

“I just have had a political sort of reaction against the concept of old women being demonized and age being this horrifying, scary thing. I just didn’t like that. I didn’t like it when I was a little girl. I don’t like it now."

On why male movie decisonmakers have defaulted to witch characters:

"Once women passed childbearing age they could only be seen as grotesque on some level."

On how a witch role seemed different at 65 than at 40:

"Before that, I had been playing interesting parts. I just thought that it was emblematic of what Hollywood thought of women who pass a certain age: that now they are old crones. It made me mad, so I didn't want to do that or play into it. Now, it's age-appropriate. I am an old crone, I'm 65 and I'm thrilled I get the chance to play such a … big, challenging musical part."

On feeling comfortable in a witch role because Hollywood has improved:

"Things have changed since. That was 25 years ago. Now there’s so much more interesting stuff available.”

Wednesday, 29 July 2015

A group of scientists, architects, and advocates has worked on new methods of wayfinding for visually impaired persons. The maps created are tactile and have an audio component. In other words, they convey information through touch and sound. Users can tap on icons and listen to more detailed information since using Braille only may limit a map's effectiveness (via).

"This is really the first time [a visually impaired person] can sit in their living room and orient themselves to a BART station that they plan on visiting, plan a path of travel from the entrance, to the turnstyles, to the platform, and then off the train and to the bus stop. That's really special."
Joshua Miele (Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, lost his sight at four)

"For a very long time, there was research out there implying blind people couldn't use tactile maps. As a blind person, and as a researcher, I'm sort of shocked at this, because it's just not true. Blind people with good orientation and mobility skills have excellent spatial cognition, because we have to."Joshua Miele

"My biggest goal is for blind people to not only be able to use maps like these universally, but to expect them, want them, ask for them, and use them in a way that improves their ability to get out there in the world and do the things they want to do."Joshua Miele

Monday, 27 July 2015

“We have noticed, as a community here in the middle of the city, that a lot of people want to meet people from different backgrounds and religions and that there is a strong desire to show that people from different religions can get along. We want to make a point and show that religions can be a cause of peace.”
Pastor Gregor Hohberg

Berlin will be home to a special house of worship. Christians, Jews, and Muslims are planning House of One, a place of worship and contemplation that brings a church, a synagogue, and a mosque under one roof (via). The idea was born in 2009 when archeologists discovered the remnants of Berlin's earliest church and the city's Latin school dating back to 1350. Protestant pastor Gregor Hohberg, who initiated the project (Wilfried Kühn is the architect), said: "We quickly agreed that something visionary and forward looking should be built on what is the founding site of Berlin." Imam Kadir Sanci saw a chance to encourage a conscious dialogue between different faiths to discourage prejudices (via): “It is very important for us to overcome all the negative news in the world. I have the wish, for my children, my family, for myself and for everyone, that diversity becomes a reality and that people will accept each other in their otherness.” (via). For Rabbi Tovia Ben-Chorin Berlin is the city of wounds and miracles (via). A pastor, a rabbi and an imam realise their shared dream. Beautiful.

A communal room will link these three separate sections and serve as a meeting place where people can come together and learn from each other (via).

Fundraising started in 2014, the building work is to start in 2016. Believers of different faiths have already started using the future site of House of One for joint open-air prayers (via).

photographs via and via and via and via and via; (c) by their respective owners

Thursday, 23 July 2015

"Great architecture for the blind and visually impaired is just like any other great architecture, only better: it looks and works the same while offering a richer and better involvement of all senses. With this expanded understanding, I offer the potential to enhance the experience in all environments serving a greater proportion of the visually impaired."Chris Downey

"So my final takeaway for you is that not only is the city good for the blind, but the city needs us. And I'm so sure of that that I want to propose to you today that the blind be taken as the prototypical city dwellers when imagining new and wonderful cities, and not the people that are thought about after the mold has already been cast. It's too late then. So if you design a city with the blind in mind, you'll have a rich, walkable network of sidewalks with a dense array of options and choices all available at the street level. If you design a city with the blind in mind, sidewalks will be predictable and will be generous. The space between buildings will be well-balanced between people and cars."Chris Downey

Christopher Downey lost all sight in 2008 after a surgery to treat a brain tumor. His loss of sight, however, "proved an unexpected strength". He is now one of the few practicing blind architects in the world and teaches accessibility and universal design at UC Berkeley.

The surgery left you without sight. What projects have you worked on since you resumed practicing?

"I resumed work exactly one month after losing my sight. It was a little crazy, as I had not started any of the rehabilitation training for sight loss, and there I was back in the office. But the leadership and staff were all incredibly encouraging and supportive. Eventually, the rehabilitation services started, including the orientation and mobility skills that I needed and the computer skills that I needed to engage in our technology-driven profession. It was all coming together late that fall when the economy tanked. As layoffs mounted, I too had to go in December 2008.
Starting 2009 unemployed as an architect who had been blind for less than ten months was not particularly auspicious. Within a month, however, I was connected with the Design Partnership in San Francisco, which was working on a Polytrauma and Blind Rehabilitation Center for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Palo Alto, together with SmithGroup out of San Francisco. The project was in design development, yet the client and the team were becoming aware that they really didn’t understand how space and architecture would be experienced and managed by users who would not see the building. When I showed up as a newly blinded architect with 20 years of experience, there seemed an opportunity to bridge that gap. The fact that I was a rookie at being blind was even better, as I was not that far removed from the experience of the veterans who were dealing with their new vision loss.
The project quickly illuminated a spectrum of practice where my blindness could be harnessed as a strength. I started to focus my professional interest on projects for the blind such as schools, service providers, and rehabilitation centers. Along with the continuing VA project, I’m working with Starkweather Bondy Architecture in Oakland on an expansion of the Guide Dogs for the Blind school in San Rafael, California. I’m also consulting with Magnusson Architecture and Planning in New York for the renovation of the Associated Blind Housing project, a 220-unit residential building on West 23rd Street in Manhattan
I’m also exploring work on other project types that can be difficult for blind users, such as transit centers, airports, and museums. These places can be made accessible in ways that are not simply a band-aid or an applied adaptation. At cultural and science centers, accessibility codes have removed barriers to independent physical entry and mobility, yet for the blind that simply gets us into the space, where we are free to roam around. Little has been done to provide further guidance to those with sensory impairments."

How has your understanding of space, light, and materials changed? And has being blind changed your approach to design?

"Becoming a fully actualized blind person doesn’t happen overnight. It is commonly understood that 80 percent of the architectural interface is through vision. When sight is lost, the mind starts to rely more heavily on the remaining senses. In my case, I also lost all sense of smell, so it’s down to acoustics and touch, as well as muscle memory and other more subtle sensory cues.
I rely on a cane for mobility and not a dog, in part because I appreciate the acoustic feedback of space. The cane helps me discover things around me. Quite often when walking through town, people try to steer me around obstacles yet that's exactly what I'm looking for. If I don't hit it with my cane, how do I know where I am? You quickly learn to catalogue a lot of stuff and it becomes quite surprising when you realize that you know exactly where you are with a simple tap of an object or a wall with a cane. You can often tell how high a ceiling is by listening for the reverberation of a tap or a clap off the ceiling or the bounceback off a distant wall. These aren't supersensory levels but rather the product of the mind not overwhelmed with visual inputs. The brain simply processes the same impulses with a different bias.
Light, however, is a very poetic part of architecture that brings space to life. The rules and the calculations are all the same, and I still build mental models using images from 45 years of sight.
Materials have taken on new significance for me. Traditionally, material palettes are developed for their visual composition. I now like to expand choices to a textural, tactile palette. I like to think of the front-door handle as the handshake of the building - the feel of the grip speaks volume. Handrails at the stair or ramp are the same. There are so many places in a building that are meant for touch, yet architects are so inundated with drawings and production that they can forget what it’s really like to inhabit a building. With all the technological development around us, architecture remains a full sensory experience. You can’t get it on your iPhone or on the web. Perhaps that makes it nostalgic - or perhaps it actually makes it more vital and alive."

Wednesday, 22 July 2015

Pancho Barnes (née Florence Leontine Lowe) was born on 22 July 1901. She was one of the first female pilots to be licensed in the U.S., Lockhead's first female test pilot, a stunt pilot during the Silent and Sound eras, the founder of the "Associated Motion Picture Pilots" (the first movie stunt pilots' union), and a member of the Ninety-Nines (the International Organization of Women Pilots). In 1930, she broke Amelia Earhart's world women's speed record and became the first woman to fly into the interior of Mexico. Pancho Barnes set speed records and was considered "America's fastest woman flyer" (via and via).

"After she graduated, Barnes announced that she wanted to be a veterinarian. That was such an appalling idea to her mother that she promptly enrolled the teenager in Stickney School of Art for a more ladylike course of study. This did not offer any real long term prospects, however, so Barnes’ maternal grandmother arranged for her to marry the rector of the local Episcopal church. It seemed like a win-win situation, if not a perfect match. The groom would be appeasing a major contributor to the church and get a new bell tower. The bride would be able to stop living with her parents and have a shot at independence. (...) As was to be expected, Barnes was totally bored being a poor pastor’s wife, but she tried to fill the role for a while.(...) In addition to the usual carousing, in June 1952 Barnes was involved in planning another bash, her fourth wedding, to Mac. The bride was 51 years old, and the groom was 32. (...) The 58 second ceremony was presided over by Judge J. G. Sherrill and witnessed by 650 guests. Then the couple exchanged vows again in a Native American ceremony officiated by Chief Lucky and Little Snow White of the Blackfoot tribe. The wedding banquet included four whole roasted pigs, 80 pounds of potato salad, 16 gallons of Jell-O and a 50 pound wedding cake. One of the entertainers at the reception was Lassie." (literally via)

"When some friends got the idea to get hired on as crew on a banana boat bound for South America, Barnes, the only woman, didn’t hesitate to join them. She dressed as a man and signed on as “Jacob Crane.” As soon as the boat left the dock, the adventurers discovered they were running guns and ammunition to revolutionaries in Mexico. When they arrived in San Blas, the ship was boarded by armed guards who used the vehicle to shelter the town’s money from the rebels. The crew was held hostage for six weeks. Barnes and the helmsman, Roger Chute, were the only two courageous enough to escape.The pair stole a horse and burro and set out through the Mexican countryside. Barnes quipped that her partner looked like Don Quixote, and he said that made her “Pancho.” She corrected his reference, saying the character’s name was “Sancho Panza,” but Chute liked “Pancho” better. Barnes liked the sound of Pancho Barnes, and the name stuck." (literally via)

"Amelia Earhart got all the publicity and Bobbie Trout made all the money, but I was the best pilot."
Pancho Barnes

Later, Pancho Barnes was mainly recalled as the the owner of the "Happy Bottom Riding Club", a dude ranch near Edwards Air Force Base in California that became "a slice of American history". In the 1940s, it was a favoured hangout for test pilots and Hollywood celebrities. In 1953, it burned down and her plans to re-open never came to fruition (via and via). Pancho Barnes passed away in 1975.

Monday, 13 July 2015

Joanna: It'll happen to me before then. When you come back, there will be a woman with my name and my face, she'll cook and clean like crazy, but she won't take pictures and she won't be me! She'll be... like the robots at Disneyland.Dr. Fancher: Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to give you a prescription that you get filled, then you get your children and GET THE HELL OUT! Don't tell your husband, don't tell anybody, just get in your car and drive somewhere you feel safe. (via)

"The Stepford Wives" is a novel written by Ira Marfin Levin (1929-2007, author of "Rosemary's Baby). His satirical thriller had a film adaption three years after being published, in 1975 (the 2004 remake with "the almost complete erasure of the powerful feminist message" shall be ignored here...). The protagonist, Joanna Eberhart, a photographer from New York City, moves to Stepford with her husband and children. She notices something strange about the people living there, i.e. all wives being "zombie-like" submissive to their husbands (via).

"THE STEPFORD WIVES is probably the only viable, intelligently conceived movie about women and their future made in the past decade … (it) is one of the select few genre films more important fo [sic] its ideas than its genre excitements." David Bartholomew

At the beginning, there was a backlash and feminists criticised the film for reinforcing "the patriarchal view of gender" (Ruben, 2012). Then, the film was neglected in film criticism for decades. According to Krugovoy Silver (2002), the "themes of The Stepford Wives dovetail so closely with those of second wave feminism that the film can be viewed as a popularization of some of the most persistent concerns of the women's liberation movement of the 1960s and early 1970s. The film's examination of the plight of the dissatisfied middle-class housewife, its parody of the fetishization of housework, its explicit critique of the nuclear family, and its relentless focus on the constructedness and artificiality of female beauty are key issues to which second wave feminists - particularly radical feminists - drew public attention."

The term "Stepford wife" entered common use and is "usually applied to a woman who seems to conform blindly to an old-fashioned subservient role in relationship to her husband, compared to other, presumably more independent women. It can also be used to criticise any person, male or female, who submits meekly to authority and/or abuse; or even to describe someone who lives in a robotic, conformist manner without giving offense to anyone" (via).

Friday, 10 July 2015

Consuming capsaicin, an irritant component of chili peppers, is linked with health benefits. Its burning and stinging sensation, however, makes the consumption of spicy foods rather difficult. Health benefits are surely not the only driving force making people choose one food or the other and in the case of spicy foods it is assumed that (apart from taste phenotype, oral anatomy, prior exposure and familiarity) personality and affective responses may play an additional major role. Spicy foods are associated with strength and machismo in some cultures which may create social forces making men more susceptible to rating the liking of spicy foods comparably higher as these social forces do not exist for women.

In a laboratory setting, participants (n=246) rated food preference (10 ml. of 25 uM capsaicin was part of the stimuli) and sensations on a liking scale (analyses of affective ratings focused on three of the 27 food items) and later filled out personality surveys (Private Body Consciousness, Arnett's Inventory of Sensation Seeking, Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire).

One of the interesting results was the observation of differential effects of men versus women. In men, Sensation Seeking or Sensitivity to Punishment did not predict annual chili intake... neither was there a correlation between chili intake and most of the other personality constructs measured. However, men showed a tendency to like spicy foods when there was an association with Sensitivity to Reward (the items describe reactivity to rewarding situations comprising money, sex, social power, and approval). Women, however, liked spicy foods when they showed higher scores in Sensation Seeking (with the limitation that this was only true when consuming spicy BBQ ribs).
Translated into conclusions, these divergent mechanisms mean that women tend to respond to intrinisc factors when consuming spicy foods while men are rather led by extrinsic factors. The authors point out that their conclusions are tentative and that further work is necessary.

Wednesday, 8 July 2015

"I chose to cast people over the age of 60 for a fashion shoot because they are more interesting to me than young, skinny models."
Alex de Mora

"I was inspired by the character I saw when taking personal photos of my Grandmother, and I thought why not transform this into an fashion editorial, so I pitched the idea to Vice Magazine."
Alex de Mora

"I had been wanting to shoot a “leisurewear” series for a while, and wanted to give a hip hop angle to the idea. I thought of Snoop Dogg going shopping in his velour tracksuit.
The shoot itself took place in my studio in London and we decided to color match the background, clothes and set for each shot, to give it a surreal, stylized tone."Alex de Mora

Monday, 6 July 2015

Two years, 299 postings, 3867 subscribers and a great many beautiful, wonderful, thought-provoking, fun, and creative comments. When I started two years ago, I had no idea how this blog would develop ... and if, at all. I had no experiences with blogging, was not existent in social media (I still have no facebook account), thought it would take ages until somebody found an online article of mine, English is not my mother tongue and I am well aware of the fact that I'm quite lousy at commenting (my standard "thank you" responses in the past two years may seem unimaginative and uninspired but they really are the essence of what I feel reading your comments). The only thing I had was lots of ideas to share about one of the most beautiful things: diversity. And, from the very beginning, beautiful, motivating comments. Thank you so much for commenting, for subscribing, for just passing by.

photograph, bird and photoshop carving (a) Paperwalker

No trees in Brittany were harmed during the making of this picture ;-)

Friday, 3 July 2015

"Flower Power" is a photograph taken by Bernie Boston (1933-2008) during a march to the Pentagon on 21 October 1967, nominated for the 1967 Pulitzer Prize. It shows a Vietnam protestor placing carnations in the rifles of guardsmen. It is not clear who the young man was. According to the Washington Post, it was George Edgerly Harris III, an actor who moved from New York to San Francisco where he came out, changed his name into "Hibiscus", and co-founded the "Cockettes", a "flamboyant, psychodelic gay-themed drag troupe" (via).

The young man's identity is not known for sure but "Hibiscus" would perfectly match both the the symbol of flowers and weapons being incompatible and the stereotype that is currently having a revival at the Lithuanian army. The Lithuanian army, after reintroducing compulsory military draft last March, screens candidates for suitability by, e.g., applying a "psychological" test that can identify if somebody is gay by asking, for instance, "whether the candidate likes picking flowers and whether he has ever considered a career in the floral industry" (via). Flowers seem to be unmanly. Interestingly, there is also the clichè of the stereotypical "hot gardener that does more than landscaping", a macho the neglected housewife has an affair with - in Hollywood, in $2.99,- books found at Barnes & Nobles and according to various headlines (e.g. via and via and via and via). Gardens are "a place where gender power relations are played out, are highly significant in the social construction of 'home'." (Bhatti & Church, 2010). Gardening is often called "feminine" today but used to be considered to be inappropriate for upper-class women in the past (via).

Above: The same day, on 21 October 1967, anti-war activist Jan Rose Kasmir was photographed by Marc Riboud while marching to the Pentagon (via).

In Australia, more than 91% of florists are women (NSW, 2013). According to Le Feuvre and Zinn (2013), only 6% of the florists in Switzerland are men while representative functions, such as the Board of the Swiss Professional Florist Association, are mainly composed of men. Zinn (n.d.) discusses the question if one can still refer to it as a "female dominated occupation" when men are numerically under-represented but may not experience any domination and hence it is not clear what "domination" refers to.

"As a man, becoming a florist proves that you really want to be a florist, because for a man it is less obvious, it is very unusual. And by really wanting to become a florist, you have to try harder than anyone else and then it is much easier to have your own business and to be self-employed (Dominik, self-employed, in a long-term relationship, aged 31)." Le Feuvre & Zinn (2013)

People seem to have strong opinions on which job is (not) suitable for men and women. In Britain, 64% believe that women make better florists while only 3% think men are better florists. When asked which jobs men are not suited for, 12% of men and 8% of women reply "florist". 73% of men and 61% of women disagree with the statement that neither gender are better than the other at working as a florist (WorldPay Zinc, 2013). Swiss florists also seem to use gender category mobilisation strategies selling simple, not too fancy, not a lot of care needing, easy to handle, brightly coloured flowers to male clients or to women who want to buy flowers for men and pastel shades to women (Le Feuvre & Zinn, 2013).

In the way of working, it’s really [laugh], it’s really, umm […] obvious, it’s really obvious. So, when I’m teaching sales techniques to students, I always start by explaining that they’re not going to behave in the same way with a man or a women ; really in the way of guiding the client […] When a woman comes into the shop, you’re going to leave her to have a look around ; so we’re talking about a passive sale here : a passive approach in the way you interact, whereas with a man, you’re going to be directly active […]. (Nicolas, floral teacher, married, two children, aged 44).Le Feuvre & Zinn (2013)

Wednesday, 1 July 2015

"All men are created equal" was first used by Thomas Jefferson in 1776. Jefferson may have borrowed this "immortal declaration" by his Italian friend and neighbour Philip Mazzei (via).

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. United States Declaration of Independence, part of the second paragraph

As many members of the Congress, including Jefferson, owned humans, i.e., slaves, the wording was criticised and the passage critical of slave trade was deleted.

If there be an object truly ridiculous in nature, it is an American patriot, signing resolutions of independency with the one hand, and with the other brandishing a whip over his affrighted slaves. Thomas Day (abolitionist), 1776

Charlton Heston (1923-2008) is associated with Ben Hur, Planet of the Apes, opposition to the Vietnam War when he was younger, with Ronald Reagon and the National Rifle Association when he was older.The latter left an extremely bitter aftertaste and overshadowed his participation in the civil rights movement during the 1960s. In 1963, for instance, Charlton Heston took part in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (via).

"Two years ago I picketed some restaurants in Oklahoma but with one exception up until very recently like most Americans I expressed my support of civil rights largely by talking about it at cocktail parties, I'm afraid. But again, like most ... many ... Americans this summer I could no longer pay only lip service to a cause that was so urgently right in a time that is so urgently now."Charlton Heston

"(...) he fought for what he valued (...) it didn’t matter whether it was hard, incovenient or unpopular. Charlton Heston always followed his true moral star, his passionate belief that all men are created equal, that our liberty is precious and our God given rights are worth defending.”Vaughn about Heston

photographs (picketing a whites-only restaurant in Oklahoma in 1961) via and via and via and via and via

About Me

This weblog is about diversity and inclusion. It is not about "managing" diversity and "coping mechanisms" at the workplace only but about different aspects of diversity (all dimensions, i.e., age, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, disability) in art, marketing, music, sports, health, literature, urban planning, language, etc. We encounter diversity and attitudes to it everywhere in society. Limiting discussions and good practices to aspects related to the workplace may be, well, too limiting.

I have been working in the fields of diversity and human resources for many years. I also work as a university lecturer at the Department of Business Education and Development, University of Graz, Austria.

One project we are currently working on is "Graz. The Inclusive City." It is about raising awareness for how to turn a city into an inclusive city and collecting ideas. The weblog is in English (mostly) and German (sometimes, in fact, whenever postings refer to the city of Graz). If you are interested:

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